


even awful dreams are good dreams if you're doing it right

by butiamhome



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Dreams and Nightmares, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-11
Updated: 2015-12-11
Packaged: 2018-05-06 05:33:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5404904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/butiamhome/pseuds/butiamhome
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kent’s had recurring dreams since he was a kid, but for a long time now, they’ve all been about Jack.</p>
<p>(note: there's like, the mildest reference to sex and also references to nightmares about an overdose/death)</p>
            </blockquote>





	even awful dreams are good dreams if you're doing it right

Kent’s had recurring dreams since he was a kid, but for a long time now, they’ve all been about Jack.

The earliest he remembers started a few months into junior hockey, after becoming friends with Jack. It’s sort of hazy in his mind, like a gauzy film’s been placed over the lens. He’s in bed and Jack’s on top of him and Jack’s mouth is on his and it’s sort of overwhelming at first, because Kent’s known for a while he was into dudes, but he didn’t know he felt this way about his best friend. Jack grinds down onto him and he can feel how hard they both are. It shocks the hell out of him for a second, but when he shakes his head to clear it and Jack stops and asks, “Is this okay?”, he hears himself saying, “God, don’t stop.” He wakes up and his sheets are a mess, every time.

These types of dreams die down once he can touch Jack in real life, but that’s when what he’d call the “ice rink with a white picket fence” dreams start. He and Jack are first and second draft picks, and in the dream, the order matters to exactly no one. They go to the same team, practically hand in hand, and they dominate, tying for top scorer and keeping up the patented Zimmermann-Parson no-look one-timer. They’re equals in the hockey world, finally, and they get an apartment together, and maybe a cat or two. They’re teammates on the ice and in love, and no one questions it or looks at them sideways. Everything is perfect, and they’re on top of the world together. This is Kent’s favorite dream of all of time.

Of course, the nightmares start after the overdose. There are a few variations. In one, it’s Kent who finds Jack on the bathroom floor, passed out and a hand stretched toward where the bottle of anxiety medication has fallen and spilled. Sometimes these continue into more horrific territory **—** Kent’s too shocked and doesn’t call 911 in time, or the ambulance runs late, and there’s nothing they can do for him. He can’t decide if these are better or worse than the dreams where he gets a phone call, over and over, “I’m so sorry, Kent. He was gone by the time we found him.” He wakes up in a cold-sweat panic, wishing he could call Jack, knowing he wouldn’t answer.

He starts having the dreams where he tries to fix everything shortly after their quiet fallout, and their frequency only increases after the fight they have when Kent makes the mistake of visiting him at Samwell. About half of them are mostly variations on the white picket fence **—** he visits, they make out and make up, Jack joins him on the Aces, and they get a happily ever after in Vegas. The other half aren’t quite nightmares, not like the ones where Jack’s dead, but they’re certainly not pretty. He shows up at Jack’s door, they scream at each other, and someone throws a punch—almost always Jack at Kent. Needless to say, they don’t fix anything, and Kent wakes up gently prodding a bruise that’s not there. And every once in a while, there are the ones where he walks in on Jack with somebody else—usually that small blond guy from the hallway with the wide, worried eyes. And they’re happy, so happy, and even Kent can’t ruin that.

Kent doesn’t sleep too well, most of the time. He either loves the morning or hates it, depending on how his subconscious has decided to torture him that night. But even after the bad dreams, he wakes up and some small part of him is happy just to have seen Jack one more time.

**Author's Note:**

> still stuck in hockey hell, when will my suffering end, etc. etc. no but actually i'm pretty glad to be here! i think i've officially written more fics for this fandom than for any other and i'm excited about it. i hope you guys liked this one, i really enjoyed writing it.


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